Wednesday, April 30, 2014

China has officially strongly criticized any sanctions saying that they would be useless.

Another six cities of the eastern Ukraine have rebelled.

Dmitryi Olegovich Rogozin Russian Ambassador Extraordinary
and Plenipotentiary of Russia and Deputy Prime Minister of Russia in charge
of defense industry has declared that Russia will respond to words with words and to actions with actions. For example, he said, if the US would try to hurt the Russian aerospace industry they could fly their astronauts to the International Space Station themselves.

Oleg Tsarev, one of the most popular political figures from the eastern Ukraine officially quit the Presidential race explaining that it was impossible for him to participate.

Mikhail Dobkin, a top Party of Regions figure and close friend of the Major of Kharkov Gennadi Kermes - who has been shot and is in critical condition in an Israeli hospital declared that he is also thinking of quitting the Presidential race.

Russian pilots have reported that the GPS signal over Ukraine appears to have been degraded by the USA. The USA also did that in Libya and during the 08.08.08 Ossetia. Luckily, the Russian constellation of GLONASS satellites is at its full capacity (24) and it can easily take over.

US Secretary of State John Kerry:"Today Russia seeks to change the security landscape of Eastern and Central Europe, we have to make it absolutely clear to the Kremlin that NATO territory is inviolable we will defend every single inch of it."

In Kiev the Right Sector and the Maidanites have fought each otherTurchinov admits that his operation has failed:"I would like to say frankly that at the moment the security structures are unable to swiftly take the situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions back under control. Security personnel tasked with the protection of citizens are helpless. More than that, some of these units either aid or co-operate with terrorist groups. Our task is to stop the spread of the terrorist threat first of all in the Kharkiv and Odessa regions."

It has been announced by the military authorities in Russia that two newcomers will participate in the next May 9th (aka "Victory Day") parade in Moscow: a Spetsnaz unit in its new bullet-proof combat fatigues and silenced rifles and a Naval Infantry unit from the Black Sea Feet which will be flying the flag of the Russian Crimean Republic. I can just about imagine the rage of the NATO attaches invited to watch the parade (which they always are each year).

The pro-US liberal activist Boris Nemtsov has committed political suicide by going on Ukie TV and comparing Putin to Stalin. Not that he has much to lose since his "Parnas" party was firmly pegged in the single digits.

Nemtsov, Khodorkovsky, Kasparov and Navalnyi and a few others are basically political corpses now

On the same program on Ukie TV which featured Nemtsov, a well-know Ukrainian nationalist, Iurii Lutsenko, seriously declared that the "genetic code of the Ukrainian people give them the ability to live outside lies, whereas the genetic code of childern of Gengis Khan makes them willing to live in lies and spread the patriotic syphillis". His comments about the genetic makeup was made particularly comical since he was sitting next to a Jew (Nemtsov), on a TV show hosted by a Jew (Savik Shuster) and that he was co-organizing the conference which invited Nemtsov to Kiev with another famous Jew (Khodorkovsky). I wonder why these Jews who usually are hyper-sensitive to "genetic" issues all remained silent and smiling when a neo-Nazi nationalist was seriously discussing how the Asia genes of Russians made them different and less capable of opposing lies than the putative Ukrainian "race".

The USA and EU have adopted further symbolic sanctions on Russia which only serve one purpose: to convince the Russians that the West cannot and will not take any meaningful punitive measures against Russia.

Finally, the US is gleefully reporting that sanctions are hurting Russia which is now suffering from a capital outflow. This is partially true, there are signs of capital outflow, but this is speculative capital anyway which, like in 08.08.08 is moved out by western plutocrats in response to an anti-Russian campaign and which will soon be right back. So far, there are absolutely no signs of disinvestment for the simple reason that the Western plutocrats are not willing to suffer the consequences of such a move.

I might have mentioned his here, but there is a great Russian saying about making empty threats. It goes like this: "to try to scare a hedgehog with a naked butt". That is exactly what the US and EU are doing now: they are trying to scare Russia with sanctions which will hurt them infinitely more than they would hurt Russia. Not only that, but the very notion that slapping 15 or 30 people with a 6 months travel ban into the Eurozone will break the will of a people which withstood events like the 900 days of the blockade of Leningrad by the German military (with hunger, cold and artillery and Luftwaffe bombing raids every day) is laughable.

click to enlarge

The good news today is the admission by Turchinov that he lost the Lugansk and Donetsk Oblast and that what he as to do now is to prevent these events from spreading to other parts of the Ukraine such as the Odessa and Kharkov regions (see map). My personal feeling is that Kharkov is gone too. But Odessa might be more complicated. The situation in Dnepropetrovsk is even more complex.What could happen is a two-step disintegration of the Ukraine. In the first step the Lugansk, Donetsk and Kharkov regions would break off and form their own independent republic. Then a relative lull will take place between the upcoming Presidential elections (assuming they happen), the payment of pensions, the price increases and the total termination of Russian gas supplies to the Ukraine. Then over the summer and early Fall the rest of the Ukraine will explode in social protests which will push regions such as Odessa or Zaporozhie to break off while the oligarchs and neo-Nazis battle each other for the control of Kiev. The single most powerful factor affecting the Ukrainian disintegration process will be the economic boom in Crimea. If last year the Ukrainians compared the economic prosperity of Russians and EU-members, this year they will compare the economic situation in the junta controlled Ukraine (which I call "Banderastan") and Crimea. As for the People's Republic of Donetsk, it will have to join Russia sooner or later if only for security reasons.Then, I can only express my amused amazement at Kerry's latest expression of hot air. What does "we have to make it absolutely clear to the Kremlin that NATO territory is inviolable we will defend every single inch of it" supposed to mean?! Does Kerry seriously believe that anybody - nevermind the Russians - will seriously believe that Russian tanks are about to attack NATO? This also begs the question of how exactly would NATO propose to fight Russia if the latter occupied the Baltic Statges (which Russia neither wants nor needs).Kerry is turning into a full-time buffoon who makes Hillary look rational.On last thing: I have heard that something close to 70% of Americans are unhappy with Obama and is his handling of the Ukrainian crisis, while Putin's popularity is pegged around 80% of support.Looks to me like the Russian people and the American people very much have a similar point of view. Too bad that a parasitical plutocracy of 1% has put a non-entity like Obama in power.The Saker

Monday, April 28, 2014

Both John Mearsheimer and, especially, Stephen Cohen are both extremely smart and knowledgeable academics and it is a crying shame that these two men are so completely ignored by the current US elites. I highly recommend this very good show. Enjoy!

The Saker

Personal note: I want to add something here. Mearsheimer and Cohen are the living proof that the caricature which a lot of non-US people have about Americans being arrogant, ignorant and stupid is fundamentally wrong. During the Cold War an entire generation of very savvy academics and analysts materialized who were refined, well educated and sophisticated thinkers with the ability to truly look ahead in a non-ideological fashion. I have had the pleasure and honor to study with Paul Nitze and I personally knew Admiral Elmo Zumwalt and I can attest that while not necessarily always sinless saints, these men were truly remarkable decision-makers who loved their country and who wanted to do what is right for it. Listening to Mearsheimer and Cohen I had a flashback to my conversation with Nitze who by the end of his life also had reached a certain wisdom and detachment which allowed him to see things from a higher perspective. I also hope that Steven Cohen will impress those who naively believe that all American Jews are sayanim or AIPAC/JINSA/ZOA agents as this is far from being the case. The USA is far more complex than a lot of non-Americans think and it should not be judged by the performance of clowns like Dubya, Obama or Biden.

The city hall and the city council buildings of the eastern city of Konstantinovka have been taken under control of Russian-speaking insurgents who say that they are here to protect the local authorities (who are opposed to the revolutionary regime in Kiev) from any attack by the junta.

Probably lured by the oligarch-galore in the Ukraine, the Jewish oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky has showed up in the Dontesk region to show is support for the new regime. According to him, “Donetsk is far from being as pro-Russian as it could be".

The Mayor of Kharkov, Gennadi Kermes, has been shot in the back and critically wounded by an unknown gunman who used a rifle from long range. The bullet passed through Kermes' body, damaging several internal organs.

Six more Right Sector gunmen have been arrested over the week-end when they attempted to penetrate the Donetsk area under cover.

According to The Guardian, the Jews of the Ukraine do not fear the neo-Nazi Banderists, but Putin, Russia and Russian propaganda.

Obama is about to announce new sanctions against Russia.

The EU is about to announce new sanctions against Russia.

On Sunday, pro-regime soccer hooligans clashed with pro-federation Russian-speakers. There were injuries, but not fatalities.

A number of fake snuff-videos purportedly made by the Right Sector which show policemen being killed have emerged on the Internet. They are almost certainly fake, but nobody knows who is behind this action.

A very interesting trend is beginning to emerge: the deepening of the rift between the, shall we say, "official" leaders of the eastern Ukraine and their own electorate. I am talking about folks like Mikhail Dobkin, Gennadi Kermes (the one shot today) or the various representatives of the Party of Regions in what is left of the Ukrainian Parliament. The folks leading the anti-regime insurgency are adamant that the Party of Regions and all its members have already betrayed them many times and that the idea of participating in the Presidential elections organized by the junta in Kiev is yet another betrayal. Yesterday, in one of the most popular talkshows on Russian TV ("Sunday Evening With Vladimir Soloviev") one of the supposedly "pro-Russian" representatives of the Party of regions ended up having an ugly shouting match with about half of the guests on the show, including three representatives of the pro-Russian insurgency in the eastern Ukraine, and several well-known Russian analysts. At this point the "least disliked" "official" political figure in the eastern Ukraine might be Oleg Tsarev who was expelled from the Party of Regions and who initially announced that he was running for President, but who dropped out of the race when confronted about that by the local people in Donetsk. He is also the politician who was invited to the Ukie TV show "freedom of speech", who was guaranteed protection and then who ended up several beaten and partially stripped of his clothes by neo-Nazi thugs outside the TV station.Speaking of TV stations, following the ban on the re-broadcast of Russian TV in the Ukraine, a number of TV stations have been stormed and taken under control of local insurgents who, interestingly, did restore the broadcast of Russian TV stations alongside Kiev controlled TV station. They did not get the Ukrainian stations off the air.For the time being the twice announced operation to put down the Russian-speaking East has achieved nothing besides getting a few people killed and radicalizing the local population. The current strategy of laying siege to the rebellious cities is bound to fail as time is most definitely not on the junta's side. Again, to me, the eastern Ukraine has reached an escape velocity, a point of no return, and I simply do not see any figure who could make the idea of a federalized Ukraine work. I am not even sure if Putin could do that.

Finally, there are pretty good signs that somebody is definitely trying to make things worse by, for example, filming the fake snuff-video I mentioned. Or the shooting of Kermes for that matter. The irony is that the Right Sector and the Russian-speakers are both opposed to a negotiated settlement and both equally hate the junta in power. The shot which wounded Kermes today could have been fired by either side.Note about terminology:I employ a lot of expressions which I consider value-neutral. I there speak of the "insurgents" in the East just as I spoke of the "insurgents" on the Maidan. To me somebody who takes arms against a regime is an insurgent, that does not imply that I condone or condemn what he/she is doing. Same thing for the expression "revolutionary regime". To me a revolutionary regime is one which brings about a radical change, a change in order, in regime. That can be good or that can be bad. Ditto for "rebels" who are, in my opinion, those who openly disobey the orders of an authority. Again, I don't believe that these expression imply anything other than a factual situation.Stay tuned, kind regards,The Saker

Sunday, April 27, 2014

RT is reporting that 3 officers of the most elite anti-terrorist unit in the Ukraine, they are called "A" or "Alpha", were caught in the city of Gorlovka, near Donetsk. Read the full article and watch the video of their interrogation by reporters here.Now let me provide some context here.The Ukrainian SBU is a truly frightening secret service. Ever since it's foundation following the independence of the Ukraine the SBU did some work arresting gangsters and criminals, but it's most feared mission was to be the "enforcement" service of whoever was in power. The top of the top of the SBU forces were supposed to be the "A" or "Alpha" anti-terrorist forces. It is rather cute that the proudly independent Ukies felt the need to use the same designation as the hated Moskals whose famous anti-terrorist group is called "A" (the Alpha thing is a media invented misnomer and an attempt to sound like the US "Delta" Force; in reality the group is called "the A Directorate"). Anyway, they call have the same name, but in terms of skills or record the two groups are very different. For one thing, the Russian "A" never was the enforcement service of the regime and they had no political role or mission at all. Second, they really did deal with anti-terrorism and very serious organized crime. Still, by Ukrainian standards, these are the top of the top. These are also the folks who have been kidnapping anti-regime activists over the pasts months. I have to note that the previous commander of the Ukrainian Alpha was sacked for refusing to engage in operations against the Russian-speaking population - so there were some honorable officers in this group. But by now it is pretty clear who stayed. And they mission was typical too: to kidnap the head of the local police department.

The hunters became prey

Instead, the three wannabe kidnappers got caught themselves.The three captured today were lead by a Lieutenant-Colonel, no less. For the Russian militias to have detected, intercepted and captured three undercover Alpha officers is already fantastic, but to catch an Alpha Lieutenant-Colonel is nothing short of miraculous. It is also a testimony of the absolutely unique level of gross incompetence of the Ukrainian security service to have such a high ranking operative caught.It is also highly ironical.

For days the regime in Kiev was reporting that it caught GRU (Russian military intelligence) officers here, then there, then again over there. They were never shown, of course. At the GRU HQ in Moscow they laughingly declared that by now the Ukies had caught so many GRU officers that the entire GRU personnel was now in captivity and the GRU offices empty. So imagine the pain and embarrassment in Kiev when they found out the self-organized militias of a small town near Donetsk managed to capture 3 Alpha officers alive, including a Lieutenant-Colonel.The video shows them pretty well-banged up - they did resist being captured - and completely despondent. All three clearly realize that their screwup deserves to be listed in the Guinness Book of Records under the "amazing incompetence" heading.The past 24 hours have been a disaster for the junta in Kiev: first a group of spies pretending to be with the OSCE got caught, and now 3 Alpha officers are also captured.Except attacking a few checkpoints and stealing its food and medicines, the junta forces have so far totally failed to achieve anything. The single most feared segment the junta's security and enforcement apparatus was the SBU, which is also the best equipped and best trained. And then this.I wonder what else could go wrong? Will a US national working for the CIA be captured wearing a silly wig? Or maybe a junta official like Avakov or Taruta?Let's just hope that nothing terrible happens tomorrow as the regime might try something "macho" to save face, like Reagan did in Grenada (arguable the worst military operation in modern history, by the way).Stay tuned. Kind regards and good nite,The Saker

Friday, April 25, 2014

[First a small announcement: I will contact the "Saker correspondents" over the week-end with details about how we will get organized and the kind of stuff we will do. Over 40 people have responded to my offer and I am happy to announce that we got all five continents covered. Another seven candidates have not answered my request to confirm their desire to participate: "fsd", "cc", "sl", "y", "aa", "ov" and "fg". If you are still interested, please email me over the week-end.]

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Listening to Kerry today I went through a series of rather contradictory emotions. First, I felt disgusted, then my disgust turned to anger, then to outright amazement and, by the end, I actually felt rather happy. Let me explain why.First, of course, my stomach turns every time I hear this prototypical representative of the 1%er plutocracy speaking to the world as if he was some kind of Emperor-schoolteacher scolding a class of rather dumb and unruly kids for their bad behavior and promising them a spanking. We all know that folks like Obama or Baby Bush are just puppets, a mostly empty shell shown to the zombified public as "The President and Commander in Chief" while in reality these guys are basically spokesmen. Not so Kerry. He is in the Dick Cheney or James Baker class, not quite at the top of the power pyramid, but much higher up. These are the folks who step in when the mindless puppet makes a mess and some brains are needed on the frontlines. I find these people profoundly repulsive (though I could not help admiring James Baker's fantastic diplomatic skills).My initial disgust turned into rage when I heard Kerry speak such lies that out to make even a politician feel ashamed of himself. Most of what Kerry said could quite literally be turned around by 180 degrees and become true. Even though I am now 50 years old and I have seen all sorts of lies, deceptions, betrayals and falsehoods over the years, I still have a naive voice in me screaming "how can he say that?", "does he not feel horribly ashamed?", "how can he live with himself?". I know. I am naive and idealistic. I just cannot get used to it. Even after 50 years.Eventually, my rage turned into outright amazement. At this point, I was beyond good and evil, I was marveling at the nerve it takes to go on world-wide TV and basically state that he earth is not round, but triangular, that 2+2=317 and that black is pink with green dots. He even added that it was impossible to turn black into grey, that black was just that, black. At this point I was awed.

And then, suddenly, it hit me. Kerry and the interests he represents are really terrified and frustrated. His statement is a desperate attempt to do what the lawyers call the "last resort rule". It goes like this: “If you have the law, hammer the law. If you have the facts, hammer the facts. If you have neither the law nor the facts, hammer the table”. Kerry was hammering the table really very, very strongly and that, I realized, was an implicit admission that neither the (international) law nor the facts were on his side. Had the facts or the law been on his side, there would have been no need for table hammering, of course.His panic and frustration also showed in his rather clumsy attack on the Russia Today TV channel. Here is what he said:

In fact, the propaganda bullhorn that is the state-sponsored Russia
Today program, has been deployed to promote – actually, Russia Today
network – has deployed to promote President Putin’s fantasy about what
is playing out on the ground. They almost spend full time devoted to
this effort to propagandize and to distort what is happening or not
happening in Ukraine. Instead, in plain sight, Russia continues to fund,
coordinate, and fuel a heavily armed separatist movement in Donetsk.

But think about it: Russia Today does not broadcast in Ukrainian or Russian. It broadcasts in English, Spanish and Arabic. The only thing RT does broadcast in Russian are its documentaries on its dedicated website: http://doc.rt.com/on-air/. This is a tiny fraction of what the channel really does and its audience in Russia or the Ukraine is minute compared to the one of the big Russian TV channels. So why did Kerry single our Russia Today? The answer is obvious, of course, it is because Russia Today is a very popular TV channel outside Russia or the Ukraine. According to Wikipedia,

The network's signal is carried by 22 satellites and over 230 operators, which allows some 644 million people to watch the channel in more than 100 countries. RT America is available to 85 million people in the United States. In 2011 it was the second most-watched foreign news channel in the U.S. after BBC World News, and the number one foreign station in five major U.S. urban areas in 2012. It is also very popular among younger American people, U.S. college students, and in U.S. inner city neighborhoods. In 2013 RT has become the first TV news channel in history to reach 1 billion views on YouTube. According to the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board between 2.2–2.3 million Britons tuned their televisions to RT during the second half of 2012, making it the fourth-most watched rolling news channel in Britain, behind BBC News, Sky News and Al Jazeera English.

“We can't allow ourselves to be out-communicated by our enemies, you've got Russia Today, Iran's Press TV, Venezuela's TeleSUR, and of course, China is launching an international broadcasting 24-hour news channel with correspondents around the world [and has] reportedly set aside $6 -10 billion dollars – we have to go to Capitol Hill with that number – to expand their overseas media operations.”

So there you have it. The problem is not that Russia Today is stirring up the people of eastern Ukraine, the problem is that thanks to Russia Today the people in the West are beginning to see through the official propaganda! That is the real reason for Kerry frustrated outburst.So, to sum things up:1) The law is not on Kerry's side.2) The facts are not on Kerry's side.3) The people in the West are beginning to see through the lies of the propaganda machine.4) There is nothing the Empire can do about any of that.If any confirmation of that was needed, it came today with the amazing performance of Mark Levine on today's CrossTalk show. It's not on YouTube yet, but you can watch it here: http://rt.com/shows/crosstalk/154788-ukraine-info-war-russia/. Levine turned CrossTalk into CrossShout, another clear case of "table hammering". Why - for the same reasons as Kerry. Nothing else works for him anymore.Ever since Putin came back to power, Russia is not playing by the same set of rules as the ones drafted by the Empire. Both in Syria and the Ukraine, Russia has been very carefully but steadily pushing back the international AngloZionist plutocracy and loosening its grip on the planet and this is directly reflected in the impotent rage of Kerry and his fellow 1%ers.This, I think, is very good news indeed.Cheers,The Saker

Thursday, April 24, 2014

Wow! Now things look very serious indeed. RT reports that Russia is starting military maneuvers involving not one, but TWO military districts plus the Air Force:

Russia has begun extensive military exercises in Ukrainian border area following the escalation of violence in eastern Ukraine. “The order to use force against civilians has already been given, and if this military machine is not stopped, the amount of casualties will only grow,” Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said during an official meeting in Moscow. “War games by NATO in Poland and the Baltic states are not helping the normalization of the situation. We are forced to react to the situation.” Shoigu said that the drills involve march and deployment exercises by forces in the southern and western military districts, and separate Air Force maneuvers. Shoigu said that 11,000 Ukrainian soldiers, 160 tanks, 230 armored carriers and at least 150 artillery pieces are involved in the operation against anti-Kiev activists. “National guard units and Right Sector extremists are fighting against the peaceful population, as well as a volunteer Donbass ‘anti-terrorist’ unit. Also security and internal forces transferred to Lugansk and Donetsk from other areas of the country are suppressing dissent,” the minister said. He added that Ukrainian sabotage units have been deployed near the Russian border. In contrast, Shoigu said that the pro-Russian self-defense units number about 2,000 and have about 100 guns between them, which have mostly been taken from local police stations.

I did not expect such a dramatic and rapid escalation and if I was on the side of the forces currently attacking Slaviansk I would get really frightened. The size of the force Shoigu has just mobilized is huge, potentially enough to fight a major war on a full continental front. It also includes the best and most powerful and battle-hardened Russian units from the southern military district.Now, this does not at all mean that the FULL forces of the military districts have been mobilized or are moving. But that the Russian high command can draw whatever units it deems necessary from these two districts (a misnomer, by the way, they are now called "strategic directions"). One thing is certain, not even during the Chechen wars or 08.08.08 did Russia assemble such a powerful military force. I am frankly astounded that they would make such a decision and announce it publicly even though the Ukrainian attack so far has been, frankly, minimal and lame.Also, notice that unlike Putin, Shoigu is not talking about "consequences" for "individuals" but about stopping the Ukrainian military machine! He also presents this not a a choice for Russia, but as something Russia is forced to do. He clearly knows something we don't. Maybe a NATO move in western Ukraine? It seems totally crazy to me that NATO would do that, but how can I otherwise explain the huge size of the force Russia has just put on alert?! You don't need the resources of two of you most powerful strategic directions to deal with 5'000+ SBU/RS thugs? For that a single ODON division would be plenty.I am getting very worried by this and I hope that this is a mistranslation or some kind of misunderstanding on RT's part (stuff happens). But if not, then this is very, very serious.I will try my best to figure out what is going on.Stay tuned (and say prayer for peace), and let's hope that things calm down.The Saker

UPDATE @ 1522Z: 5 people reported killed in Slaviansk. Ukies have entered Slaviansk, there are combats inside the city. The cellular network has been disconnected.

Pretty much all my sources confirm that the junta in Kiev has launched an attack on the city of Slaviansk. Most sources say that only SBU and Right Sector forces are involved, though other source report that the "special forces" (no details) seen on the airport near Slaviansk are also participating. My personal take is that at most the military is providing some support, but that the real fighting is now purely SBU + RS. From the junta's perspective, this is a very wise decision because, unlike the paratroopers or regular military forces, the SBU/RS troops will be more than happy to kill, kidnap, torture or maim what they see as local "separatists" and "Moskal-supporters". Furthermore, also unlike the paratroopers or regular military units, the SBU/RS thugs can expect no mercy at all from the locals, so they will not surrender or, even less so, switch sides.So now the only question is how determined the Russian-speakers in the eastern Ukraine really are. In 08.08.08 the local people of Tskhinval succeeded in bogging down a *FAR* superior attacker, backed by *massive* and *sustained* artillery and tank fire (something which has not occurred yet in Slaviansk), but they did that because they had no doubt whatsoever what a takeover of South Ossetia by Saakashvili's truly genocidal thugs meant for them. I am not at all sure that most people in the eastern Ukraine share that kind of determination.The good news - at least so far - is that today's attack was rather lame and has nothing to show, really. All the fighting happened only on the outskirts of Slaviansk, only 2 local militia men are reported dead, a few attempts at entering the city in mini-vans appeared to have been intercepted and at the end of the day the attacking force had to retreat. For a force reportedly composed of 5'000 attackers backed by armor and heavy machine guns that is rather pathetic.The bad news is that Slaviansk appears to be surrounded on all sides except for the main road between Slaviansk and Donetsk.The bottom line is this: the western press wants to show that the junta has some muscle while the Russian press wants to show that the junta is committing a crime against the civilian population. Thus both sides have vested interest in inflating the situation.

Personally I see no evidence at all of an 08.08.08 kind of attack.I would also note that Putin's reaction today was very measured. He did threaten "consequences", but if you listen carefully, he threated the "officials involved" and said that this would also affect the "relationship" between the two countries. What is important is that he did not refer to Ossetia, he did not mention his right to intervene, he did not speak of protecting the Russian population outside Russia as Lavrov did yesterday. I am in no way suggesting that Putin is hesitant, or that he will not deliver on his promise to protect the Russian speakers in the eastern Ukraine, I am only trying to point out that on the "threat scale" he has so far decided to wait and see. In fact, he quite literally said exactly that. So yes, he did threaten "consequences" but so far this threat is really directed at the decision-makers in the junta, not at the 5000 or so attackers on the ground (who will be the real target of a Russian intervention, should it happen).This one is too early too call. We must wait and not get infected by the constant hyperbole of the corporate media.Stay tuned, I will try to keep you posted.The Saker

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Listening to Lavrov today I came to the conclusion that the regime in Kiev was indeed about to try to attack the eastern Ukraine. It's not only Lavrov, the Russian Internet is on "red alert" and chock-full of rumors and speculation about an imminent attack. This begs a number of questions:1) Why would the junta in Kiev so overtly renege on the Geneva agreement?2) Why would it attack when the chances of success are very small?3) Why would they attack know that Russia would almost certainly intervene?4) Why is the US clearly behind that strategy?I have a hypothesis which I would like to submit to your attention.First, the junta in Kiev is reneging on the Geneva agreement simply because it cannot abide by its terms. Remember, the junta is composed of a few politicians handpicked by the US and a few Ukrainian oligarchs. They do have money, but no power. How could they possibly impose anything in the well-armed and determined freaks of the Right Sector?Second, the eastern Ukraine is lost no matter what. So the junta in Kiev have to pick on of the following options:a) Let the eastern Ukraine leave by means of referendum and do nothing about it.b) Let the eastern Ukraine leave but only after some violence.c) Let the eastern Ukraine leave following a Russian military intervention.Clearly, option 'a' is by far the worst. Option 'b' is so-so, but option 'c' is very nice. Think of it: this option will make it look like Russia invaded the Eastern Ukraine and that the people there had no say about it. It will also make the rest of the Ukraine rally around the flag. The economic disaster will be blamed on Russia and the Presidential election of May 25th can be canceled due to the Russian "threat". Not only that, but a war - no matter how silly - is the *perfect* pretext to introduce martial law which can be used to crack down on the Right Sector or anybody expressing views the junta does not like. That is an old trick - trigger a war and people will rally around the regime in power. Create a panic, and people will forget the real issues.As for the USA - it also knows that the Eastern Ukraine is gone. With Crimea and Eastern Ukraine gone - the Ukraine has exactly *zero* value to the Empire, to why not simply use it as a way to create a new Cold War, something which would be much more sexy that the Global War on Terror or the really old War on Drugs. After all, if Russia is forced to intervene militarily NATO will have to send reinforcements to "protect" countries like Poland or Latvia just in case Putin decides to invade all of the EU.Bottom line - the freaks in power in Kiev and the USA *know* that the eastern Ukraine is lost for them, and the purpose of the imminent attack is not to "win" against the Russian-speaking rebels or, even less so, to "win" against the Russian military, it is to trigger enough violence to force Russia to intervene. In other words, since the East is lost anyways, it is much better to lose it to the "invading Russian hordes" than to lose it to the local civilian population.So the purpose of the next attack will not be to win, but to lose. That the Ukrainian military can still do.Two things can happen to foil this plan:1) The Ukrainian military might refuse to obey such clearly criminal orders (and becoming a target of the Russian military might help some officers make the correct "purely moral" choice).2) The local resistance might be strong enough to draw out such an operation and have to come to a grinding halt.Ideally, a combination of both.From the Russian point of view things are rather simple: it is infinitely better for Russia to have the East break away without any Russian intervention. If the attacking force is crazy enough to use armor, artillery or airpower, the Russian could decide to strike from the air without actually sending in ground forces. They could also use electronic warfare capabilities to further create chaos inside the attacking force. Limited pinpoint attacks could also serve to demoralize the attacking force. What Russia has to avoid all costs to find itself forced to engage in offensive urban operations which are always dangerous and bloody. It is therefore absolutely essential the the locals take control of their own streets, villages and cities.Lavrov today delivered a very direct warning: if things go out of hand in the eastern Ukraine Russia will intervene. Hopefully somebody in the West will finally realize that the Russians are never bluffing and that they really mean it. I am not very optimistic though - if Lavrov felt the need to make a full 30min interview in English in which he clearly compared the situation in the Ukraine today to the one in Ossetia in 08.08.08 it is probably because the Russians have intelligence indicating that an attack is imminent.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

First, I have to apologize but the lack of time does not allow me to reply to all your comments. I had to pick some and leave other out. Here we go:@Tom Burnett: That's it. I am tired of hearing you refer to America as an 'AngloZionist' empire and me and my countrymen as AngloZionists".What a stupid comment to make! First, I never referred to you or any Americans as AngloZionists. I spoke about the AngloZionist *empire*. Second, you wrote me in your email that you are Scottish. Good, then at least you should not that you are not Anglo to begin with, but Celtic. As for Zionist, this is not an ethnicity, but an *ideology* which can be shared by Anglos too (Pastor Hagee for example). Besides, had I written about the Anglo Empire or even US Empire would you have been happier?Seriously, the current Empire was built on what is left of the old British Empire and it is run by what are called the Echelon countries. These are the members of the so-called UKUSA Agreement aka AUSCANNZUKUS or Five Eyes. In other words, this is the Empire of the Anglosphere. Some add France, especially after Mitterrand to this list, giving us the pittoresque abbreviation "FUKUS" (France, UK, US). But the fact that France is not part of Echelon really proves its 2nd class status in the Empire. Israel, however, has a special status. Officially, it is not even an ally of the USA. In reality we all know that the Zionist Lobby has a huge power in the USA and some even speak of a Zionist Occupation Government (ZOG) or Zionist Power Configuration (ZPC). What is undeniable is that the USA vetoed more resolutions than any other UNSC member and that most of those were in defense of Israel. It is also undeniable that when the Israeli Prime Minister speaks at a joint session of Congress he gets more standing ovation that POTUS (29 to 25). I won't bother multiplying the examples of this, but I submit that the interest of Israel are different than those of the Anglosphere. This is why I speak of a AngloZionist Empire.You and your countrymen are simply the hostages, the serfs, the cannon fodder and the exploited taxpayer for this Empire. To underscore that I even wrote this in my analysis:

"interestingly, there is definitely a strong anti-regime movement of American patriots out there. These are folks who have the wisdom to differentiate between, on one hand, their country, their people, the ideals upon which the US society was originally built, and, on the other hand, regime in DC and the 1% of the population whose interests this regime works for. Amazing, no?"

Then I also wrote:

"there was no "occupy the Kremlin" movement in the USSR while the Occupy Wall Street movement in the USA was very large and widely spread across this huge country. Nor has there ever been a Soviet equivalent of the huge 1990 anti-WTO protests in Seattle. So the American public is nowhere nearly as passive as some think."

So not only did I never say that American people were AngloZionists, but I even compared their level of resistance to the AngloZionist empire favorably to the Russian resistance to the Soviet Empire.And yet, you turn all patriotic on me and tell me that you are fed up and want off my mailing list. Sure - no problem. But next time around, make sure you read what it says before having an anger fit, ok?@AGS:an expression of gratitude that you provide a forum to read and digest information which PROMOTES intellect and thought -- not filling empty vessels with lies and deceit. THANK YOU for respecting your readers intellect. In this way we are the oil.Well, thank you! I try, but it always gets me in trouble as the case with Tom Burnett shows. The topic of Jews seems to make people exceptionally obtuse and as I result I have been accused of being anti-Jewish and of being a Jew. Some manage to read some racist ideas in my posts even though I have even implemented an anti-racist moderation policy. Frankly, there are day when I feel like banging my head against a wall and sob. So yes, I try to treat my readers with respect and I do assume they can read what it says and not begin to hallucinate as soon as they see what I call a "trigger word", but I promise you that it comes at the costs of having to fight off an army of advancing straw-men and lots of hate mail. All this is to say that your words today really came right on time, as Tom's email really made me feel rather discouraged.@Anonymous:Russian military high tech surpasses the Americans'. Have a look at this show of superiority: http://indian.ruvr.ru/2014_04_21/Russian-Su-24-scores-off-against-the-American-USS-Donald-Cook-5786/ The Americans were left wetting their pants.I hear that rumor but I have yet to see this confirmed, even indirectly, by any credible source. As a former electronic warfare pioneer myself, I can tell you that this is hard to believe as there is going to be a lot more power on a USN ship than on a Russian aircraft, especially at close distance. I am not saying that this is not true, only that I need more confirmation. Also, the story of 27 USN sailors resigning en masse because they did not want to die sounds fishy to me. So if you have any other sources, please let us know.@Anonymous:direct quotes from a Putin speech/TV presentation or interview from last Thursday (n.b: I have not verified the accuracy of the direct quotes). Would appreciate your thoughts/analysis on the thesis of the post, especially on Putin's comments (e.g. "“As for me, you know that the decisions we take in a critical situation depend on our experience and values. You know that I worked for the Soviet Union’s KGB, or, more precisely, foreign intelligence, where we were trained in a specific manner that boils down to absolute loyalty to people and the country.”).First, I can confirm the quote. He said that during his 4 hour long Q&A with the Russian people on TV/radio/Internet. Second, yes, you bet this sentence also did strike me. But you absolutely have to keep in mind that if the KGB was the elite of the Soviet Union, the external intelligence service (called the PGU KGB SSSR) was the elite of the KGB. Also, notice that Putin speaks of absolute loyalty to the people and country and not to the CPSU or the Marxist-Leninist ideology. The PGU officers were the best informed people in the country, often the most intelligent too, and they saw it all happening long before anybody else. I know the PGU rather well because I spent years fighting it in my private life (I was a very busy anti-Soviet activist), years studying it in my professional life (as a military analysts) and after 1991 I met a lot of my ex-opponents, retired and even active duty, some of which became my friends. I can assure you that what Putin says is true, most PGU officers were very patriotic, but I also assure you that a lot of them fully understood how corrupt and cynical the Soviet system had become. Most of these guys were not brain dead propagandized automatons who would blindly believe all the nonsense which the Soviet propaganda would spew at them. They served their country not because of the regime in power, but in spite of it. You probably know Ray McGovern who is ex-CIA, but who is a patriot. That is what a lot of PGU officers were like in the 1980s and 1990s. Putin was truthful in his reply.@Vediki: Extraction from very famous Russian film "Brat 2"/Brother 2. Pay attention to dialogue between Danila Bodrov, film's main hero, and an American banker. Where's force? In money? No, force is in truth.

Oh yes, I love both of these, Brat 1 and Brat 2 - great movies and great music too. But did you know that Danilo quotes Saint Alexander Nevsky who himself was paraphrasing Saint Augustine? Yes, that is true. Research it for yourself if you doubt that.

Two more items I would like to bring to your attention:

First, do you remember the "Open Letter to President Putin and Foreign Minister Lavrov" which John posted on Change.org and which I posted here? It got over 600 signatures and was picked-up by the Voice of Russia. Nice, no? I hope that it was shown to Putin and/or Lavrov who deserve to know that some people in the West understand themSecond, I have to apologize for failing on my first day on the job as "stern moderator". I was in the car and could not read with any attention what Cold N. Holefield posted today. I am so squeezed for time that I do a lot of my blogging with my cellphone as a hotspot and my Nexus 7 Internet Tablet "on the go", from my car. His posts looked okay at first glance, so I let it pass. Sure enough, he was trolling to his heart's content and other felt that his crap deserved a rebuttal. I don't feel like removing his post retroactively, but I will now keep a closer eye on him and other dumb trolls. Sorry about today and gimme some time to learn the ropes of this new activity ;-)Many thanks and kind regards,The SakerPS: I also sometimes work on this blog late into the night. So I apologize for my slow replies, horrible typos, poor grammar and other screw-ups. Last week I calculated that I had a total of 4 nights in a row with only 3-4 hours of sleep. And then I have to work from the car to moderate, answer emails or manage the mailing list, so my mean time between failure is sometimes rather short, and I screw-up. Please keep in mind that this is a one man blog, and that I have a (wonderful) wife, a regular job and three kids all of which should come first. I do the blogging with what is left on the clock and that is often not much. So I plead for your understanding and forgiveness. The Saker

There are many theories out there about what exactly caused the collapse of the Soviet Union. Some say that it is Ronald Reagan with his Star Wars program. Others say that this is the war in Afghanistan or the Polish union Solidarnosc. Other popular theories include the failure of the Soviet economy, the drop in oil prices, the inability to produce consumer goods, the yearning of many Soviets for western-style freedoms and incomes, national/ethnic problems, a hypertrophic military-industrial complex, a massive and corrupt bureaucracy, the corruption of the CPSU and its nomenklatura, the personal treason of Mikhail Gorbachev and many other theories. While all of these factors did contribute to weaken the Soviet system, I do not believe that they brought it down, not even combined together. What really brought down the Soviet Union was something entirely different: an unbearable cognitive dissonance or, to put it more simply, an all-prevailing sense of total hypocrisy.But before I make my case about the role of hypocrisy, let me first clarify why I don't believe that any other of the theories I listed above make sense: simply because the USSR survived much, much, harder times. Frankly, the entire period from 1917 through 1946 was much worse than anything which happened during Brezhnev's "stagnation" or after. And yet, not only did the Soviet Union survive, it almost single-handedly defeated the biggest military machine Europe ever created - Hitler's Wehrmacht - it also deterred the Anglosphere from its plans to attack it at the end of the war. Then it more or less won the "space race" (with the very notable exception of the race to the moon which the USSR lost on 24th of October 1960), built what was arguably the most powerful conventional military force on the planet while enjoying an internal economic boom. By any measurement, the USSR was a formidable power during a very long period.But then something went very, very wrong.Personally, I am inclined to blame Nikita Khrushchev who, in my opinion, was by far the worst leader the Soviet Union ever had. Though this is controversial, but I believe that Khrushchev and a clique of supporters murdered Stalin by poisoning him, and then engaged in a massive propaganda campaign to justify their action and legitimize their rule. It all began with Khrushchev's (in)famous "secret speech" at the 20th CPSU Congress and it continued throughout most of Khrushchev's rule. Khrushchev, who personally hated Stalin, used every truth and untruth possible to literally demonize Stalin. Worse, Khrushchev objectively joined forces with the many Trotskists worldwide who had been spreading the "Stalinism" myth for decades.Let me immediately clarify that I am not at all an admirer of Stalin whom I consider to be a bloody tyrant and a absolutely ruthless, if personally charming, dictator. But I will say that Stalin was most definitely no worse then Lenin, Trotsky or Khrushchev and that as a statesman his was far more skilled then any other Soviet leader. As for Khrushchev himself, he was the protégé of Lazar Kaganovich, one of the worst scumbags in Soviet history, he was also an eager participant in many bloody repressions, and generally a comprehensively immoral, unprincipled and outright evil person.Anyway, with his anti-Stalin campaign Khrushchev basically told the Soviet people that what used to be white yesterday is henceforth to be considered black and that what was black is now white. On a deeper level, that also showed that the Soviet Union was ruled by complete hypocrites who had no personal beliefs and who stood for nothing except for their own power.The poison of disillusionment and cynicism injected by Khrushchev and his clique acted slowly, but surely, and by the time Leonid Brezhnev came to power (1964) it had already discreetly permeated all of Soviet society. By the 1980 it was omnipresent at all the levels of society, from the lowest and poorest to the top party officials. I don't want to go into all the details, but I will say that the fact that almost nobody stood up to defend the Soviet system in 1991 and in 1993 is a direct result of that poison's erosion of the Soviet society. By the 1990s everybody knew that even if the ideals of Communism were good (which some still did believe while some did not), the modern Soviet society was built on a gigantic lie which nobody was willing to fight for, nevermind die for it.That rot of disillusionment and cynicism is also what defined the 1990s and the "democratic nightmare" of the Eltsin years. People now say that this was the time when "every young Russian boy wanted to become a Mafia Don and every Russian girl a prostitute" - not quite literally true, of course, but generally true nonetheless. It is only with the coming to power of Putin that this poison began to weaken and that the Russian society began to re-discover true ideals and a belief in values worth standing up for.How does that all apply to the AngloZionist Empire and the Ukraine?It is quite obvious, really. I tend to agree with Alexander Mercouris, Mark Sleboda and Mark Hackard when they say that the USA, ruled by incompetent and poorly educated politicians (rather than by professional diplomats or real statemen) probably expected Russia to roll-over and accept a Banderastani regime in power in the Ukraine. And when Russia refused to accept that and pushed back, the AngloZionists made their initial miscalculation even worse by dramatically increasing their rhetoric and by insisting that black was white and white was black.For the AngloZionist a neo-Nazi armed insurgency which seizes power in contradiction with an agreement it had signed less than 24 hours before is a "legitimate representative of the Ukrainian people". The Baderists are philosemites and democrats, while the people in the eastern Ukraine are either Jew-hating extremists or Russian agents. When the folks in the western Ukraine engage in a campaign of terror, murder and looting, that is an expression of democracy, when the people in the east seize SBU buildings it is terrorism. When Yanukovich was faced by protesters the US demanded that he not use any force at all, not even cops with sidearms, when the junta leader Iatseniuk faces protesters, he is acting with praiseworthy restraint when he sends in tanks, artillery pieces and combat aircraft. The referendum in Crimea is illegitimate because it was allegedly conducted at the point of a gun, while the proposed upcoming Presidential election will be legitimate even though they will be organized and conducted by bone fide neo-Nazis and even though two candidates get assaulted and cannot campaign. I could continue to multiply the example here ad nauseam, but you get the point: what the AngloZionists are declaring urbi et orbi is basically that black is white, the earth is flat, 2+2=3, up is down, etc. They are doing exactly the same than what Khrushchev did in the USSR: they are showing their own people that they believe in nothing and stand for nothing except their own power.Not that the American people need much convincing, I would add.In my admittedly subjective opinion the level of disgust of most American people with the Federal government is already sky high. Sure, most people feel impotent and believe that there is nothing they can do about it. When they vote for peace, they get more war. When they vote for less taxes, they get more. When they vote for more civil rights, they get less. There is an entire generation of Americans out there which is as disillusioned and as disgusted with their own rulers as the Soviets were with their rulers in the 1970s and 1980s.

Interestingly, there is definitely a strong anti-regime movement of American patriots out there. These are folks who have the wisdom to differentiate between, on one hand, their country, their people, the ideals upon which the US society was originally built, and, on the other hand, regime in DC and the 1% of the population whose interests this regime works for. Amazing, no? The Soviet Union had its formal nomenklatura while the USA has it own, informal, one. About 1% of the population in each case.You want more uncanny parallels? Sure! How about1) A bloated military budget resulting in an ineffective military2) A huge and ineffective intelligence community3) A crumbling public infrastructure4) A world record in the per-capita ratio of incarcerated people (US GULag)5) A propaganda machine which nobody trusts any more6) An internal dissident movement which the regime tries to keep silent7) A systematic use of violence against the citizens8) An increase in tensions between Federal and local authorities9) An industry whose main exports are weapons and energy10) A population fearful of being spied on by the internal security services11) A systematic assimilation of dissent with espionage and terrorism12) A all-prevailing paranoia about internal and external enemies13) A financially catastrophic over-reach of the empire across the planet14) An awareness that the entire planet hates you15) A subservient press-corps of presstitutes who never dare to ask the real questions16) A sky-high rate of substance abuse17) A young generation which believes in nothing at all18) An educational system in free-fall (the Soviet one was much better, btw)19) A disgust with politics by the general public20) A massive and prevailing amount corruption on all levels of powerThese are just a few examples which apply as much to the USSR of the 1980 as it does to the 2014 USA. There are also plenty of differences, of course, no need to list them here as they are quite obvious.My main point is not that the USSR and USA are the exact same, but only that the similarities between the two are becoming uncanny and numerous.In conclusion and to put things simply: what the AngloZionist are openly and publicly defending in the Ukraine is the polar opposite of what they are supposed to stand for. That is an extremely dangerous thing to do for any regime and the AngloZionist Empire is no exception to that rule. Empire often crumble when their own people become disillusioned and disgusted with massive discrepancy between what the ruling elites say and what they do and as a result, it is not so much that the Empire is faced with formidable enemies as it is the fact that nobody is willing to stand up - nevermind die - in defense of it. Just look at the following sentence:(in the Ukraine) "Barack Obama and the Democratic Party stand for racism and Fascism"Amazing, no? But it is true, even though this short sentence has enough tensions inside it to explode the brain of many Americans, especially Democrats. I put the "in the Ukraine" in brackets to provide the context but, of course, the context does not matter one bit. You cannot be for liberal policies at home and for Fascism abroad. Nor can you be an anti-racist who supports racism, it don't matter one bit were that racism is located. Values truly held are applicable to all and everywhere. You cannot oppose torture in country 'x' but favor it in country 'y'. That is plain ridiculous. So let me restate the sentence above this time without the context in brackets:

"Barack Obama and the Democratic Party stand for racism and Fascism"

Blows your mind, doesn't it? And, of course, the very same can be said of McCain and his party:

"John McCain and the Republican Party stand for racism and Fascism"

Still painful, no?How about this one:

"The EU stands for racism and Fascism"

Or, even better:

"The ADL and the Weisenthal Center stand for racism and Fascism"

Or this one:

"Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch stand for racism and Fascism"

Pretty amazing, no?Now try combining any of the above with this one:

"Putin and Russia stand for democracy, freedom and human rights"

Ouch! That one would really hurt a lot of American and Europeans.

Of course, this is not how the events in the Ukraine, or any other event, is presented in the official public media and the zombified public discourse. But neither was that the case in the USSR. Still, not all people are stupidified zombies - though some, of course, are - and they do their own, quiet, little thinking in their own heads. Sometimes they toss ideas around with their friends. In the Soviet Union the "Petri dish" for politically incorrect discussion was usually the kitchen. In the USA it might be near the barbecue.Of course, we are not going to see mass demonstrations in the streets of Washington DC, most people are going to keep this kind of "crime thoughts" private or for a small circle of trusted friends, but let me remind you all that since we are making comparisons between the USSR and the USA, there was no "occupy the Kremlin" movement in the USSR while the Occupy Wall Street movement in the USA was very large and widely spread across this huge country. Nor has there ever been a Soviet equivalent of the huge 1990 anti-WTO protests in Seattle. So the American public is nowhere nearly as passive as some think.The Ukraine is far away from the USA, and only 1/6th of Americans can place it on a map. But the consequences of the very high visibility involvement of the US regime and the AngloZionist Empire will be dramatic, if delayed in time. Already nobody in his/her right might would give Obama his Nobel Peace Prize again. So even though the formidable western propaganda machine is way more capable and sophisticated than anything Goebbels or Suslov could have dreamed about, it cannot hide reality forever.This is why the Empire is so desperate for some kind of victory in the Ukraine. If it cannot be respected any more, it needs to be at least feared. But if the Ukraine explodes and Russia gets Crimea and the East (which appears increasingly likely) then the AngloZionist won't even be feared anymore. Once that happens, the life expectancy of the Empire will become very, very short.So yes, knowing the truth does make one free, and the truth is the most powerful empire-buster ever invented. It brought down the USSR and it will bring down the AngloZionists too. It is just a matter of time now.The Saker

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WORDS TO LIVE BY:

Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free

Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew (10:26) and Saint John (8:32)

Trust not in princes, nor in the children of men, in whom there is no safety. His breath shall go forth, and he shall return to his earth; in that day all his thoughts shall perish.

Holy Prophet and King David (Psalm 145:3-4 according to the LXX)

To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget.

Arundhati Roy

Thou shalt not be a victim.Thou shalt not be a perpetrator.And above all,Thou shalt not be a bystander

Yehuda Bauer

In a world of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act

George Orwell

Each small candle lights a corner of the dark

Roger Waters

I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill. I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent. Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.

Mahatma Gandhi

I am for truth, no matter who tells it.

Malcolm X

Globalize the Intifada!

Lowkey

I am a pessimist by nature. Many people can only keep on fighting when they expect to win. I'm not like that, I always expect to lose. I fight anyway, and sometimes I win.

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